The Other Hillary Theme Song Contest

Both TNR’s The Plank and Wonkette have comment threads devoted to suggesting alternative — and more appropriate — choices for Clinton’s “Choose Our Campaign Theme Song” poll. The official choices include Dixie Chicks, Jesus Jones, and the Smash Mouth cover of “I’m a Believer.” (Between this and the text-messaging gimmick she announced earlier this week, one wonders if the HRC folks don’t realize that 12-year-old girls can’t vote. Besides, Edwards has that demo locked up.) The Plank is having an actual contest, but it’s Wonkette that’s got the best ideas, in both mocking and semi-serious veins. For both ironic commentary and genuine songcraft it’s hard to beat Leonard Cohen’s “First we take Manhattan (then we take Berlin),” while “Kick Out the Jams” from MC5 is just waiting for some smart politician to figure out how to clean it up enough to play in public.

If I were a mean-spirited mischievous blogger type, I’d probably organize a virtual flashmob and get them to hammer that poll to death with a particularly wicked option. Unfortunately, the poll results are not instantaneous or even shown on the website (black box voting!)*, so I imagine no matter how many people vote for, say, a certain Elton John anthem, we’ll still end up having to put up with the same crappy U2 song that Kerry used.

And, okay, I can’t resist. Here are my suggestions, based pretty much on what showed up on the Shuffle this morning (why they’re skewed contemporary). I’m trying for a balance of poppy stuff that you can imagine being played at a rally and irony and/or actual appropriateness. You figure which is which.